A lyric poem that is written alike to Emily Dickinson how she writes her poems

06Jan 2022 by

Emily Dickinson is one of those poets who has an incredibly unique style that is easily recognizable.  Your challenge in this assignment is to show how well you understand and recognize those parts by writing a poem in Dickinson’s style.  Just as a reminder, here are the main elements of her style:

Lyric Poetry – Dickinson wrote lyric poetry: short poems with one speaker who expresses thought and feeling.  Dickinson usually wrote as herself and about herself, from her own point of view.
No Title – Dickinson’s poems do not have titles, therefore the first line of the poem is used as the title.
Abstract/Concrete – Dickinson often wrote about abstract concepts in very concrete ways, such as making death a person she meets and interacts with. She did so through personification, symbolism, and allegory.
Meter – Although there are some variations, Dickinson’s meter often followed a very sing-song pattern of four line stanzas with alternating syllables of 8-6-8-6. It’s a pattern that follows the rhythm of popular songs like “The Yellow Rose of Texas (Links to an external site.)Texas” or the theme song from the TV show “Gilligan’s Island. (Links to an external site.)”
Slant Rhyme – Dickinson regularly used slant rhyme, where instead of rhyming words that rhyme perfectly (like “weak” and “meek”), the words might only use the same vowel sound in the two words (like “weak” and “reach”).
Dashes – Dickinson used dashes throughout her work, especially at the ends of lines.  She seems to have used the dashes to show emphasis, as a comma or period, or to replace words.
Capitalization – Dickinson also would capitalize words in the middle of lines that aren’t typically capitalized.  Because most of her work was discovered after her death, it’s unclear why she did so.
Subject Matter – Her most prominent subjects were nature, religion, death, and love.

The poem you write must:

be at least four stanzas long and be written without a title
be written with an 8-6-8-6 meter
be on the subject matter of nature, religion, death, or love
capitalize important words in the poem for emphasis
include an abstract concept (such as nature, death, or love) in a concrete way, such as through using personification
use at least one example of slant rhyme
use dashes in place of commas or periods